Frozen Kombat
by Jigsaw13327
Summary: An old unfinished piece posted for the entertainment of a YouTube comments section.


Frozen Kombat

A Cross-Over Fan Fiction

By Jigsaw13327

NEW AUTHOR'S NOTE:

**This is an unfinished piece I wrote originally back in 2014. After mentioning it in a YouTube comments section, I was met with MANY replies asking to see this dumpster fire of a freshmen year fan fic. Keep in mind that this was written before MKX or MK11, because this story ****_completely_** yeets canon out the window.

**So here you are, you sick perverts. I hope you enjoy this absolute trainwreck!**

**With love, Jigsaw. **

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

_This is entirely a work of fiction based off of two already existing works of fiction. This author does not own the two franchises represented in this piece. All rights, copyrights, and trademarks reserved. This author also apologizes for any inconsistences__(_**ha!**_)_ _with the storylines of the two franchises. _

_Special thanks to Walt Disney Animation Studios and Netherrealm Studios, as well as Warner Bros. for not suing this author. _

_Jigsaw_

_1_

_The Origins of Two Fighters _

_I_

"Elsa…"

Unintelligible murmuring.

"Elsa, wake up!"

Princess Elsa's tiny form rolled over to the right side, ignoring the quiet pleas of her younger sister. As much as she loved her little sister, her affection waned thin every time Anna rose at the break of the dawn. Elsa just wanted some sleep. Even after their parents had intervened and told Anna to get more sleep, Ana continued to wake up extremely early.

"Go back to sleep Anna." Elsa yawned, and rolled back over. For an instant, her barely-open eyes caught a glimpse of Anna's shimmering brown hair, reflecting in the pale rays of the early morning sun that shone through the window. Elsa playfully shoved Ana off the bed, tangling sheets as she fell. Anna giggled, then hopped back on the bed.

"I can't" Anna proclaimed dramatically "The sky is awake, so I'm awake." Elsa groaned inwardly. This was the exact same line that she'd used every time she woke up early. It also managed to work on her parents, and it was the reason Elsa always fell asleep during their daily lessons in the library.

"Go away Anna" Elsa whispered loudly. She rolled back over, and shut the tiny slivers in her eyes. For about ten seconds, all was quiet and peaceful. Then Anna said "Do you want to build a snowman?" Elsa reopened the tiny slivers, and smiled.

In the early morning, the servants were still sleeping along with their parents, leaving the castle deserted. For as much as Elsa hated getting up early, she enjoyed the alone time with her sister. This was their moment together, the only time where their parents and servants did not interfere with their playing. There was no adult to tell them when to stop playing so hard, they could soil their clothes. There was no one to stop them, and that was what Elsa truly treasured during these early-morning playsessions.

They descended the grand staircase, soft silk pajamas pattering on the velvet carpet. The sisters then crossed the labyrinth of a main hall, and swung open a pair of wooden double doors on the far right. The ballroom, like every other room, seemed more imposing and menacing without any other people striding across the floor, dancing to a slow waltz. Elsa didn't mind the vast emptiness. She glanced over at her sister, trotting slowly along, ruby red pajamas glinting in the weak sun. Ever since Anna had discovered her older sister's powers, the early-morning playsessions had become more and more frequent. Their parents had not found out about these yet, and Elsa was afraid that after they did, they would be angry.

The two crossed over to the center of the room, and stood there, soaking in the surroundings, imaging not just a ballroom, but a galaxy of worlds that could provide hours of entertainment, worlds where they could be want they wanted, and not the carefully controlled environment provided by their parents. "Are you ready?" Elsa whispered to Anna. She nodded and prepared for the magic to begin. Elsa forcefully tapped her foot against the wood paneling, and a thin layer of slippery ice began to spread, covering the ballroom floor. Anna giggled, and extended her hands upwards. The room went from gloomy and dark to bright and cheery in the space of a few seconds.

For the next hour, the two girls played games of fun and magic. They built snowmen and hills, went sledding, and had an impromptu snowball fight. All in all, Elsa had a good time. Until Anna jumped from the little hill.

"Catch me, Elsa!" she exclaimed, and leapt from a tiny hill. Elsa summoned her frosty magic, and built a larger hill. Anna landed on the hill with ease. Once again, she yelled "Catch me!" and leapt off of the larger hill. By now, an hour of constant magic casting had taken its toll on Elsa, but she created another hill. Ana just kept leaping from hill to air to hill, until Elsa slipped on the icy floor. Anna had leapt off into air, expecting her older sister to be right there, to catch her.

When reflecting on the events afterwards in the darkest recesses of her room, Elsa realized that there would have been no positive outcome. Had she just let Anna fall, worse damage could've been done, and questions about the safety of the castle would have come to light in the eyes of the prying public. But in the mind of a five year-old child burdened with an unspeakable power, Elsa did what she thought was the worst thing of all.

She had cried out, and a bolt of ice went streaking through her fingertips and into the air. It impacted with Anna's head. Anna cried out, and smashed into a hill of snow, rolling downwards until she came to rest at the bottom. Elsa stood up, and ran towards her unconscious sister. She shook her with all of her might, called out her name again and again, hoping that Ana was faking like the little actress she was. In the distance, she heard the ballroom doors slam open, and she felt a gust of wind as her parents flew towards her.

All she could do was cry out, "Mom… Dad!" and her father rushed forward. Being the tall man he was, he had to kneel down to cradle the limp Anna in his arms.

"My God" he said to his wife "She's cold as ice."

The queen, upon hearing this, broke out into a fit of hysterics. The king noticed the ice crystals climbing higher and higher on the ceiling. He turned to Elsa, and for a moment Elsa thought she saw pure-white hatred in her father's eyes. "This has gotten out of hand" he announced. He promptly strode away, and headed for the library. The cedar wood paneling had always comforted him in the past. This morning, however, it chilled him to the bone. As he ran to the back section, he pulled a key out of his pocket, and unlocked the gate that separated the restricted section from the rest of the library.

As the gate loudly squeaked open, the king ran his hands along the shelf in front of him until he finally found what he was looking for. Flipping past words like _resurrection_ and _necromancer_, the king discovered the page he needed in the back. Written was text in his native childhood tongue, and a map. He stuffed the book into a saddlebag, then gathered his wife and children, hitched up some horses, then galloped away through the still-sleeping town of Arendelle.

_II_

The cobblestone streets of civilization melted into grass and the sight of buildings transformed into tall, foreboding trees. Elsa clutched her mother's waist on a black pony, while her father and Anna sped along on his white stallion. After a while, they reached a large grassy clearing with large boulders everywhere. Her father disembarked, and walked to the middle. Here, it was warm, and Elsa felt extremely uncomfortable. In the darkness, she could barely see her father carry Anna to the center of the clearing and lay her down.

"Help us" he called out in the darkness. "My daughter, she… she needs help."

Silence. Then, a rumbling. The boulders rolled down and surrounded the four members of the royal family. There was a brief pause, then little people came out of the boulders. At least, that's what it looked like to Elsa. In the back of her mind, all of the fairy tales that she and Anna had read came back to her. _Trolls._ _So they do exist_ she thought. The trolls looked up at the king, then a hushed whisper came through the crowd. The trolls parted to reveal an older troll, with several strings of crystals on his neck of varying colors. His stone face was haggled and worn, and the light-green moss indicated a troll that had lived for a very long time.

The elder troll gingerly strolled up to the king. The king lowered Anna's limp form down to the short troll's height, and the elder placed his forehead to Anna's head. Elsa later swore that she saw Anna twitch and sigh, like she was sleeping and just had rolled over. Images of the girl's playsessions with Elsa flashed in thin air. Watching the memories of the one secret they had both shared, Elsa felt a twinge of pain. With several waves of his hands, the troll changed the background of the memories.

"Instead of removing everything, we erase the magic, but keep the fun" he said. The backgrounds turned from a royal hall to a wintry wonderland. The girls in the image were admiring a snowman they had built. Elsa remembered that snowman; again she felt that tug of pain in her stomach as. She approached the elder troll and asked him "So she won't remember any of my powers?"

"Yes, she will not" he replied. He waved his hands in the air again, and another image appeared, flickering in and out of reality. "Your power is an extremely special gift. If controlled, it can bring great wonder and beauty." The image showed a woman casting a large blue snowflake into the air as a crowd of people looked on. Elsa stared at it with wonder and amazement.

"But, such a gift can turn dark and dangerous if not controlled properly" the elder troll said, and the image became evil as the people mobbed the woman and destroyed her. Elsa cried out in fright, and grabbed her mother's dress. The troll turned to the king and queen "You must help her control it. It will only increase and become more powerful. Find someone who can help."

"Yes. We will. Thank you" was her father's oddly monotone reply.

_III_

Years afterward, Elsa would remember what she called the Lonely Years. It was during this time that her parents forbade her to play with Ana, and locked her up in a bedroom down the hall from Anna. Every time Anna would come up to the door on a cold winter's day and ask "Elsa? Do you want to build a snowman?" would trigger a feeling that Elsa later would compare it to being stabbed in the stomach with a large knife. And her powers just grew stronger all the while.

One day, while writing at her desk, Elsa was scratching out a poem when she noticed that the quill she was holding was beginning to freeze in her hand. She called for her parents, and they spent two hours trying to figure out a solution to the current predicament. After some time, they gave her a pair of gloves to wear. Elsa wanted to complain and say that she didn't like the gloves. But in her mind she knew that this would be for the better.

As the years went by, a life of isolation just got worse for Elsa. With Anna constantly asking through the door if she wanted to build a snowman, and the magic getting stronger, Elsa felt like someone had placed a giant weight on her chest. It was later in the sixth year of isolation, after Elsa froze half of her room and told her parents not to touch her that the king and queen decided it was time to look for a teacher.

They secretly sent out letters to people all around Norway, but there was no one who could teach a little girl how to control magic powers. Defeated, the king and queen began to pack for a trip they were taking to visit the king's sister, who resided in the kingdom of Corona. That was when he showed up on the doorstep.

The people of Arendelle were accustomed to seeing strangers past through the town every now and then, but even the veteran residents of the kingdom were surprised when, in the dead of winter, a man walked through the town. Even though there was a blizzard raging outside, and no living creature dare set foot out in the town, a local named Acke later recalled seeing a large brown shape move past his window.

"He was like a ghost, that man!" Acke roared the next day while in the town pub, The Red Rose. "Wearing some kinda robe, or something like that. Scared the living bejeezus out of me, though." The crowd later then bought a round on Acke, who was feeling generous that day. What Acke and the townspeople did not know, however, was the reason the man visited town that wintry night. Many speculated on what it might have been. Some said money, others said ice, but it seemed everyone in the bar had their own opinion.

Had Acke and the townspeople known the true purpose of the man's visit, the shock upon hearing the news would've turned to anger and fear.

_IV_

Elsa was in her room, writing another poem in the dim candlelight when she heard shouting coming from the front entrance. She looked out her window overlooking the castle's main gates, when she saw the night watchmen swing open the gates.

_Why would the watchmen open up the gates at a time like this? Especially in a snowstorm?_

A few minutes later, her parents burst through the door. Her father raised a beckoning finger towards her. Elsa snuffed out the candle and followed them downstairs to the king's study. When her father threw open the door to the study, Elsa was shocked to see who was sitting in a chair opposite of her father's desk: A man, dressed in a brown monk's robe. He had jet-black hair and crystal blue eyes. But the most discerning feature on the man's face was a large red scar that ran down the left side of his face. Judging by his garb, Elsa believed that he was a monk in some monastery far away. But his face betrayed that image.

"Sit" her father commanded. Elsa took the seat next to the strange man. Her mother took another seat on the other side of the desk, next to her father.

"Who are you?" her father questioned the monk in the brown robe.

"I am Bi Han of the Lin Kuei Clan. I received a message about your daughter's special needs. Was it you who sent that message?" he replied in a baritone voice laced with an accent Elsa had never heard before.

"Yes" her father said. Elsa could see her father tensing and her mother following suit. "Do you have a solution?" he asked with a hint of hopefulness in his voice.

"Indeed" was Bi Han's reply. "Your daughter would come train and live with us at our secure compound. There, she will treated like family. But living with the Lin Kuei is not an easy life. She will be trained to control her powers, but it will not be a silk road lined with pleasantries."

"Anything" her father said with an edge of desperation in his voice. "Anything to help our daughter." Elsa felt anger rising in her stomach. Her father was treating her like some object that could be shipped off from one place to another! But she resisted the urge to speak, and instead listened to the conversation between Bi Han and her father.

Her mother actually spoke before her father, and she had a very important question: "How can we know that her powers can be controlled? Is there a professional trainer in the Line Kay that can teach our daughter to control her icy abilities?"

Bi Han grinned when he replied: "Yes, there is." At that, he stood up and casted his palms outward. Spirals of ice shot of his hands and froze a portion of the ceiling. Her parents both jumped out of their seats, and tumbled to the wooden floor in shock. Elsa only looked up at the man, who had cast aside his monk's robe. He wore a bright blue jumper underneath, and black boots. He extended his hand to the teenager and said to her father: "I believe that we should let Elsa decide her fate. What do you want to do?" he said.

"I want to come with you."

The next day, Elsa had packed a bag of meager belongings. Bi Han told her that she would not need any of it.

"The clan will supply you with robes and food. You need not to pack" he told her. Anna at this point had walked down the grand staircase and hugged her sister as hard as she could. Anna that morning had only been told that Elsa was going away to a school far away, and that she would return in a while. She was also told that the man standing next to her was going to be her teacher.

"But I have only seen her today!" Anna whined. "Why can't I come with her?" she questioned Bi Han.

"Princess Anna, Elsa is going to a special school very far away. It is a bit of a secret, so I cannot tell you every detail of what it is like there. Only students who attend can know what it is like" Bi Han told the moody Ana with a hint of a comforting smile. His statements to her helped brighten her mood. After fastening on an unnecessary winter coat, Elsa said goodbye to her parents and her sister. As she hugged Anna, she felt a twinge of pain and remorse rocket through her body. Bi Han let Elsa lead, and the pair headed out the door. The most painful sight Anna would have of her older sister was her and new her teacher vanishing into the frozen morning. But it would not be the last.

A week after her sister's departure, her parents announced their plans for a trip to the kingdom of Corona to visit the king's sister. Anna would not be going.

"We have to leave you here" her father said when Anna protested against not being able to go. "The kingdom needs somebody to look up to when we're gone."

"How long will you be gone?" Anna asked.

"About a month. But don't worry. We will be back soon enough. Now, go to sleep darling."

Three days later, Anna saw her parents for the last time. They were boarding the frigate that would take them to Corona, when she noticed that her father had turned around and was waving at her. She waved back at him, and he disappeared below deck to his sleeping quarters. She watched the ship until it left the bay, and it became a tiny speck on the horizon. No one at that time knew that the ship was never to reach the foreign kingdom.

When the news of the king and queen's demise reached the castle, the few servants left were hesitant to tell Anna. It was finally Chauncey, the most trusted butler of all, who told Anna of the heart-breaking news. Chauncey was also the only servant to know about Elsa's condition. He had been handpicked by the former king and queen for his exceptional skills. Even then, telling Anna of her parents' death was the hardest thing he'd done in his entire career.

Anna was alone. But she would never know of Elsa's reaction.

_V_

When news of her parents' death finally reached the Lin Kuei training facility, Elsa greeted the news with a combination of grief and relief. Ever since she and Bi Han had stepped out of the castle that frozen morning, Elsa felt like a weight that had been pressing down for six years had vanished. She loved the freedom that the Lin Kuei provided, and was adapting to the rigorous schedule of training provided by Bi Han. However, she did notice a few major things that he had left out of the description of the clan to her parents.

The Lin Kuei were training people to become assassins. Elsa did not mind such sneaky killing, but it went against many of the proverbs that her parents believed in. Whenever any of her parents' lessons came to mind, she told herself that they caused her several years of pain and suffering, and they could not be trusted.

The Lin Kuei were also extremely male-dominated. Elsa knew that Bi Han had gotten into some trouble with the Grandmaster for bringing a young woman to the clan, but Bi Han must've told him something good, because no one was expressing problems with her presence in the clan except for Bi Han's little brother. Another problem Elsa also had was that she had heard whispers of something people would only refer to as "the tournament." Elsa had no idea what that meant, and Bi Han refused to give her any information about it. She sat there, pondering when a tournament could occur. Usually what she did when she was meditating on the day's events, her mind would drift to two different subjects: Answering the question that was "the tournament" and recollections of the arrival.

When she had first arrived, in the stomach of a giant metal bird, Bi Han had introduced her to the other members of the clan. First was Cyrax, a man with a yellow bandana and skin the color of Christmas chocolates. Strapped to his waist were several sphere filled with what appeared to be yellow dust. Cyrax explained to that they were little bombs that made a big explosion. From the books Elsa had read in the castle library, bombs could only come in extremely large varieties, and they had fuses. Technology-wise, Elsa's mind was blown.

But Cyrax's fuse-less bombs paled in comparison to the technology that his partner Sektor had. The man, who spoke with the same type of accent like Bi Han, had tubes sticking out of every possible orifice. Apparently, his wrist gauntlets could fire missiles and unleash flames.

"Watch out for his flame-thrower" Bi Han had told her. "You will absolutely hate it if you get hit by it. Trust me, I know." Elsa just nodded her head.

The next person she met was Smoke. Garbed in a more traditional ninja outfit that smoked, Smoke also wore a ventilator over his mouth. Every time he inhaled or exhaled, Elsa could feel little puffs of smoke on her face. After a while, her eyes began to water. Smoke was the only person to speak to Elsa. He looked down at her, and whispered in her ear: "Where there is smoke, there is fire. Do not mess with me, little girl." Bi Han gestured for them to move along, and Elsa met the final person: Kuai Liang, Bi Han's little brother.

He and Bi Han embraced, and they chatted quickly. But when Kuai Liang looked at Elsa, she could see a message being clearly expressed in his eyes: _Back off._ When Elsa asked Bi Han about it later, he replied: "My little brother thinks that when I die, he will fulfill my place as Sub-Zero."

"Why do some people call you Sub-Zero? Other than the fact that you control ice powers" she said.

At this, Bi Han's face became stony. "We will talk about it later. Now, I want you to try and produce a proper ice ball. Remember, feel the ice flow in your veins and focus. Then, think of want you want to make. Finally, hold that thought until it breaks or you want it to go away" he instructed, quickly changing the subject.

Elsa agreed, and followed Bi Han's instructions. She thrust her hands out in front of her, focused as hard as she could, and thought _Iceball._ A large clump of ice about the size of a large rock materialized in the palms of her hands. She thrust it forward, and it flew from her hands and impacted against the wall with a large _WHUMP_.

"Good" Bi Han said, and Elsa couldn't help but notice an edge of pride in his voice. "Again."

_VI_

In the castle library in Arendelle, Anna believed she had finally found what she was looking for. Searching through the entire library, including the Restricted Section, it had taken also two hours to find a book on the topic she wanted. But the key to her happiness was finally within reach. It was located in a book called _Dark Magicks and on the Topic of Resurrection_. Anna wanted her parents back, so she was going to conjure them back.

She had been in here a week, one long stretching week after she had gotten the devastating news. On the first day, she had been in tears almost all day and night. By the third day, the tears had turned to shock, and she had just walked up and the down the almost endless rows of books, no longer able to feel. On the fifth day, she realized what she had to do. She almost dropped dead of exhaustion as she frantically searched for the one thing that could possibly bring her salvation.

As Anna walked back to the center of the library, book in hand, the reasonable part of her mind kicked in for the first time that week. Her mind told her _Don't do this! Dead is dead, Anna!_ But in her heart she knew that the only way to avoid madness soon was to bring back her parents. She checked the supply list, and made sure that all of what she needed was in the castle.

A few hours later, the preparations were made. A circle, drawn in the blood of a chicken she had slaughtered outside formed a perfect frame for the square drawn inside. Inside the middle of the square was a ring of her mother's, and a cufflink of her father's. Anna stood outside of the circle, held the book in her right hand, and began to chant the words written in the book.

"_Kiere ghoslo barlla. Kiere ghoslo barlla!" _she chanted, eventually getting louder and louder. Inside the square, the items began to glow a faint eerie green. She kept repeating the three words again, and again, until she could see the faint outline of two people taking shape. She still chanted the words, and that was when the outlines disappeared, and something Anna had never seen appeared.

It was a large orange circle in the middle of the wall opposite of Ana that was rotating. There was a black hole in the center of it, and the circle would randomly shoot out tiny bolts of orange lightning. Ana stepped closer to try and get a closer look at it. That was then everything went straight to hell.

It all happened so fast. Anna was approaching the orange circle when suddenly, everything began to rumble and shake. Then a metal piece attached to a chain appeared from the blackness and speared the book Anna was holding. She was yanked off out her feet and pulled into the orange circle. The last thing Anna heard before she blacked out was a deep masculine voice yelling "GET OVER HERE!"

What Anna didn't know was that when the orange circle suddenly disappeared from the wall of the library, it set off a catastrophic explosion that destroyed Arendelle. People were vaporized where they stood. Buildings were razed, and no living creature, large and small, survived. Arendelle vanished from the world.

Scorpion knelt on the stony ground in front of Quan Chi, with the limp form of the girl he had snared from the Nether-Gate using his spear in front of him. Quan Chi, ghostly white with the cryptic red marking across his body, paced back and forth. Scorpion, clad in yellow with his two swords sheathed in the back, was explaining to his master what happened.

"I could sense that this girl had powers within her, Master. So when she accidentally summoned the Nether-Gate, I captured her for you" Scorpion finished with his statement. He could see Quan Chi's mind working, thinking of how this girl could fit into his plans.

"Very well" he said at last. "I believe that I could use this girl to become my queen, to help me rule the Netherrealm. She has magic abilities, you were right about that. But it is raw. Unrefined. And it is only a sliver, locked away in her mind." He turned to his servant. "You will help me train her to become a powerful sorceress. But first, we must repress any memories of her past life. I do not want her waking up and demanding to be returned home. I take it the Nether-Gate was set to destroy?" he asked Scorpion

"Yes, Master" he replied. Quan Chi stopped pacing and stood in front the unconscious girl, clad in a red dress. He waved his hand, and memories of sorrow, of rejection, floated in the air. Scorpion watched as his Master chanted a few words in a dead language, and the memories floated back in the girl's head. She began to stir, and her eyes opened.

"Where am I?" she asked, looking directly at Quan Chi. "And who am I?"

"Your name is Ember" he replied. "Your family was murdered by the Lin Kuei, a group of ninjas. We found you unconscious and brought you back here, to this sanctuary" he continued, waving his hand all around him. Ember looked around and saw that she had ended up in what looked to be a lot like Hell. There was a three-headed dog, and she saw men who were burning on long golden spears attached to the wall.

"You have magical capabilities, and I, being a skilled sorcerer and a benevolent person, want to bring out the best of your abilities. My servant and I will train you to become the Queen of the Netherrealm." Quan Chi said with an elegant finish.

The girl who was once Anna of Arendelle, but now Ember of the Netherrealm said: "I will join you."

Quan Chi grinned. "Then let us begin."

_2_

_Rise of the Two Fighters_

_I_

_Five Years Later_

Raiden, the God of Thunder, and Liu Kang, Champion of the Shaolin, walked together side by side as they strolled up and down the gardens of the Shaolin Temple. They, at the moment, were discussing the visions Raiden had been having recently.

"You believe that Scorpion and Sub-Zero will kill each other in the upcoming tournament?" Liu Kang questioned. His red bandana shone brightly in the noonday sun, and he fleetingly wished he had a hat like Kung Lao's razor-sharp hat or Raiden's straw hat to shade his head.

"I do not consider it to be the future. I believe that these visions are showing me of a future that we must avoid at any measure" Raiden turned and spoke. From underneath the wide-brimmed hat, Liu Kang saw a second of sorrow appear in his master's eyes.

"There is something you are not telling me, Lord Raiden" Liu Kang said. "What is it?"

Raiden grimaced before he said "We cannot let Scorpion and Sub-Zero kill each other because afterwards… you will die."

"What?" Liu Kang said, taken aback in shock.

"Quan Chi, Cyrax, and Sektor become vexed after their respective companions die, and start a fight without any challenges or official rules. You, Liu Kang, step into the middle of it, hoping to bring peace, and are killed by the ensuring battle" Raiden told him. "I have foreseen it in my visions."

Liu Kang paused before he spoke: "We must not let Scorpion and Sub-Zero fight."

"But we must" Raiden said.

"You just said it yourself, Lord Raiden, the two men will kill each other, and then I will die." Liu Kang said with a hint of irritation in his voice.

"Who said anything about them being men?" Raiden said, his voice soft.

Liu Kang looked at his master with a question in his eyes. Raiden continued:

"In my visions, both Scorpion and Sub-Zero were women. They were sisters. If I can convince Sub-Zero, who is the eldest sister, to lay down her arms, we could prevent their deaths and yours" he told the disbelieving Liu Kang. After a minute of silence, Liu Kang gathered his thoughts and finally spoke:

"So, we need Scorpion and Sub-Zero to fight each other, but not kill each other. Only then will I not die" he reiterated. "Master, you do realize this is near impossible. The Lin Kuei killed Scorpion's family, and even though the students are not the original bearers of the grudge, I do not doubt that their teachers passed it down to their pupils" he told the God of Thunder.

"Yes" Raiden replied. "But it is worth a try."

_II_

Elsa awoke from her light sleep with lightning-fast reflexes. One of the Lin Kuei principals was to stay alert, even in sleep (and sometimes as Bi Han joked, even in death). She stood up silently, applying the stealth techniques that five years of being a shadow had taught her. In the small darkened room, her trained eyes could see Bi Han lying on his sleeping mat, snoring peacefully. A small smile broke out across Elsa's face. In the past five years, Bi Han had transformed her from a scared little girl into an icy killer who was not to be trifled with. Then, she remembered what today was, and the smile vanished from her lips.

_Today is the day I kill my master._

Elsa went about her normal exercise routine, but was constantly unfocused by the dreadful thought of what was to occur at nightfall. She could not bear to kill the one man who had shown her the way of controlling her powers, the one man in her life that instead of slamming the door on her, had opened it and welcomed her in.

It had been Bi Han's idea in the first place. As the rumors of a "tournament" grew stronger, Bi Han one day had pulled her aside from her training and talked to her about the tournament.

"The tournament occurs once every few lifetimes" he had said to her, both sitting face-to-face on the floor. "Every five hundred years, the best fighters from every different realm come together in a tournament known as Mortal Kombat. With the Lin Kuei, they send their best fighters to this Mortal Kombat." Bi Han lowered his head. "I am one of the few going."

"That's great, Master!" Elsa had told him. Bi Han only shook his head in remorse.

"I do not think I have told you this Elsa, but I harbor a terrible secret. I will share it with you now, in order to understand the instructions that will follow my revelations." Bi Han paused as he inhaled an icy breath, then spoke:

"I am over seven hundred years old, Elsa. I may not look like it, but I have lived through many lifetimes as different people in each one. I have done things that even today, it is extremely hard to speak of. I butchered men and women, children and animals, all for the glory of the Lin Kuei, when the clan was still barbaric and cruel. I sparked a feud between myself and Scorpion, servant of the Netherrealm because of my actions.

"I am an old man, Elsa. The only thing that I wish to have is enteral peace. And I need you to murder me so I can get it" Bi Han finished. He leveled his icy-blue eyes at Elsa, with an almost pleading look on his face.

At first, Elsa could not properly comprehend what her master had just told her to do. Kill him? But then the rest of his words appeared in her mind, and it clicked together like cogs in a clock. And suddenly, the little girl of Arendelle was brought back out in the spotlight as tears began to form and roll down her face, where they froze halfway on her cheeks. Bi Han had wiped them away as he spoke again: "You will become the new Sub-Zero, and take my place as the frozen assassin. You are twice the warrior and person I am, Elsa. You deserve it."

For the first time during the conversation, Elsa spoke. "Why me? Isn't your younger brother more worthy of the title Sub-Zero than I?" she asked. Bi Han's face turned from one of compassion to a stony feature that held little emotion.

"My little brother is a fool and an embarrassment to the Lin Kuei. He does not comprehend the fact that the prestigious award of the title Sub-Zero does not float down into your hands like a trained bird. You must work towards it, and prove that you are worthy of it. You have shown such great promise. He has not."

"Thank you for those kind words" Elsa told him. Bi Han took no heed of her praise.

"You must kill me, Elsa. For the good of the clan. Use everything I have taught you, and do not hold back. If the Grandmaster orders you to kill me, I want you to do it with no hesitation and no mercy." He paused, gathering his thoughts, then continued. "If you are to encounter Scorpion in the upcoming tournament, please, ask for forgiveness, and try to put an end to the feud that he has with the Lin Kuei. That is my last will and testament."

_III_

Now, a week later, Elsa entered the courtyard and spotted Bi Han on the other side, leaning against a tree. She walked to a bench and sat down across from Bi Han. He noticed her and gave her a wink. She only sat there, black training robes brushing across her skin in the unkind wind. It wasn't the cold that was bothering her. These years she had spent here, with her teacher, and she was just supposed to discard his life like a broken toy? But then she remembered his words, and Elsa began to strategize and remember her training. She could make ice swords, slide several meters across the floor, throw iceballs, and even create a frozen clone of herself.

To her left, a large dais adorned with a golden throne lay in wait for the Grandmaster to sit upon it. A small crowd had gathered next to it, and they were whispering while waiting for something to happen. In the crowd, Elsa spotted Cyrax, Sektor, Smoke, and Kuai Liang lolling about, talking to each other. Elsa had no doubts that they were talking about her when Kuai Liang frowned and glanced her way. Suddenly, the crowd fell silent as the Grandmaster walked onto the dais and sat down in his throne. He was a wiry man, embellished in a red and black ninja garb, and wore a tiny hat that made his head look round. He also wore a red mask over his mouth.

"I believe that there is a challenge between two of my subjects, yes?" The Grandmaster spoke in an oddly deep voice. "Elsa of Arendelle versus Sub-Zero?"

"Yes" Bi Han replied as he and Elsa stepped into the middle of the ring. She realized that he had changed his outfit. Where there used to be a blue jumper was a black and blue ninja outfit with a ventilator's like Smoke's. Icy puffs of air blew out of it every few seconds. His arms were also radiating ice particles from them.

"And what is to be the reward?" the Grandmaster inquired, glancing at Bi Han.

"My place as Sub-Zero and my life" Bi Han answered. There was an audible gasp from the crowd. Kuai Liang looked ready to kill Elsa before Bi Han tried to.

"And the penalty?" the Grandmaster also asked.

"I would forfeit my life" said Elsa.

"Very well then. Assume your starting positions" the Grandmaster told them.

"Last words, my apprentice?" Bi Han taunted. Even before his possible death Bi Han still retained his joking mood.

"No" said Elsa.

"Well then, prepare to feel Death's icy embrace!" Bi Han shouted, and the two stared at each other, ice swords glimmering in the evening sun. Elsa saw her master charge at her, fury ablaze in his eyes. She swung, sword whistling through the air, and it connected with Bi Han's, creating a shrieking noise that hurt Elsa's ear. She threw away the sword, and thrust her palm into his stomach. Bi Han crumpled down, and she followed the palm with a roundhouse kick to the face that send her master flying backwards. He landed on the cobblestones of the courtyard with a dull thud, and he instantly stood back up. He charged again, but this time Bi Han a right hook that caught Elsa square in the jaw, drove a shard of ice through her right breast, then finished his assault with a leg sweep that caught her leg and tripped her.

Elsa's head connected with the ground, and for an instant she saw stars. She then regained her senses and rolled backwards onto her feet. Bi Han lunged towards her, but she caught him off guard with an iceball that froze him solid for several seconds. It was during this time that performed a status check. Her face was bruised, and the shard of ice had melted in her chest. The wound was bleeding freely, seeping into her robes. She noticed that her teacher was defrosting rapidly, so she created an ice sword, and grabbed him. Elsa raised the sword high in the air, rammed the hilt into Bi Han's chin, and plunged it into his chest. His eyes bulged as she broke the blade off and shoved the rest of the sword into his face, then jammed her combat boot into his stomach.

He crumpled and hit the ground. Elsa stood over him, panting heavily, trying to freeze her wounds and stop the blood from flowing. She turned on her heel and began to limp away, when she heard a roar. Elsa felt her legs get taken out as Bi Han slid towards her and connected with her feet. She hit the floor, quickly recovered, and stood back up. Elsa adapted a defensive position in which she froze herself. Bi Han rushed at her, ice sword in hand, which was his worst mistake. Elsa charged towards him in her frozen position, which stunned him.

Elsa grabbed Bi Han's liver and froze it solid in her hand. She then crushed it with a sickening _CRUNCH._ Bi Han clutched his stomach, screaming in pain, and Elsa grabbed his head. She then head-butted it, and she felt part of his skull break, fracturing with a loud _SNAP_. Bi Han then reeled backwards clutching his head in pain. He stood there dazed for several seconds, then the Grandmaster yelled "FINISH HIM!" louder than thunder. In the darkening sky, Elsa just saw the outline of Bi Han. Blood was pouring from every orifice, and he looked at Elsa with a measure of desperation in his eyes. Elsa approached him, and remembered his words. She formed an ice shard in her right hand, and crammed it into his already-broken skull. Blood sprayed everything in the range of a few feet, and his skull burst open like an overripe fruit. She then formed a shard in her left hand, and drove it into his neck, popping his Adam's apple, severing vital veins, and cartilage. Warm blood splattered Elsa in the face, and on her torn robes, but she did not notice. She then grabbed the ends of the shards and pulled as hard as she could. Bi Han's head came off with the utmost ease, like the broken head of a doll.

For a second Elsa cradled her former teacher's head in her arms, then thrust his head into the air for all of the Lin Kuei to see. She received a round of applause as blood began to drip down her arm and into her robes. Scanning the crowds with her good eye, Elsa noticed a look of horror on Kuai Liang's face.

He rushed forwards towards Elsa, rage contorting his face into an unspeakable evil. Elsa placed a well-timed heel kick that sent him backwards.

"NO!" he yelled as Lin Kuei guards began to drag him away towards the temple. "I am the rightful Sub-Zero! I am! My brother could not possibly bequeathed a foreign girl with his honor! Fight me, bitch! FIGHT ME!" he roared as the guards threw him into the temple. The doors clanged shut, and Elsa heard no more. She heard Cyrax whisper "Drama queen" under his breath to Sektor. They both laughed as the crowd dissipated until it was just Elsa and the Grandmaster left in the courtyard.

"You have done well, Elsa of Arendelle. I now officially dub thee Sub-Zero of the Lin Kuei. Our servants have created you a robe worthy of such a title" the Grandmaster told her in a proud voice. At that moment, two scantily-clad servant girls rushed forward clutching a garment of dark blue that shone and glimmered in the torchlight. The outfit had rounded pieces of silver metal sown into it. Included was a mask like Smoke's. They handed it to Elsa, who immediately bowed before the Grandmaster.

"Thank you Grandmaster for bestowing this-."Elsa began, but was cut off with the wave of his hand.

"Do not thank me Elsa of Arendelle. Your deceased teacher left this in my possession earlier this morning. He told me 'Just in case I lose'. You earned the right to keep this outfit, Elsa of Arendelle. Kneel!" he commanded. Elsa quickly dropped to one knee before him. The Grandmaster's red outfit shimmered in the light of the flames. Seconds past slower than tree sap.

"Rise, Sub-Zero" he spoke softly.

And Sub-Zero of the Lin Kuei did just that.

_IV_

Back in the Netherrealm, the girl who had once been called Anna of Arendelle awakened from her slumber as well to see the lifeless eyes of Scorpion staring at her. She laid perfectly still, for this was certainly a test Quan Chi had set up for her. Scorpion continued to stare at her with milky-white cataracts. She saw him flinch, and right as he reached for the pair of swords on his back, Ember had already brandished her magical dagger and was holding it against Scorpion's stomach.

"You are getting slow, undead lapdog" Ember goaded.

"You are talking to Scorpion of the Netherrealm, insolent woman!" he spat back. After a few seconds, he composed himself and spoke: "The master demands to see you. He has a new task for today" he said with venom dripping in his voice.

"Thank you, Scorpion" Ember sarcastically replied. Scorpion only growled and teleported out of the room. Ember hopped off of her stone frame bed, and on to the floor. Even though she was not yet Queen of the Netherrealm, Quan Chi had given her a nice room with more spacious luxuries than any other place in the Netherrealm. She strode over to her stand, and picked up her clothes. They were red robes with black highlights, and she found black boots to go with them. She stripped out of her skimpy nightclothes (for the Netherrealm nights were incredibly hot) and put on her clothes. Ember then approached the door leading out to the rest of the Netherrealm, but she found it was locked.

Ember sighed, closed her eyes, and felt the flames licking at her heels. Moments later, she opened her eyes, and saw Quan Chi in front of her. They were standing near the gate that led to the palace. "Good" he said. "I see your teleportation skills are getting more powerful. You are close to becoming the Queen of the Netherrealm. You have just one final test" Quan Chi told her. He raised his right hand, and it glowed a faint green. Ember could almost recall seeing that bright green glow from somewhere, but the memory escaped her before she could remember it.

A flash of flames blinded her, and she saw Scorpion standing there, flames consuming him, waiting for instructions from his Master. "To become my rightful queen, you must pass this final test. I can only tell you what you learn. Sometimes, the most dangerous enemies are the closest to us" Quan Chi told Ember. She prepared herself for combat, mentally checking every facet of her magic abilities. She had her dagger (strapped to her left thigh), spells that included launching fireballs, fire breath, fire kicks, teleportation, and fire bursts. Scorpion became impatient, until Quan Chi spoke.

"Scorpion?" Quan Chi inquired

"Yes, Master?" he responded

"Kill her" was the order.

Ember barely had time to pull out her dagger before Scorpion's fire fist pummeled her in the stomach. Five years of combat training kicked in, and she rammed her knee into the kneeling Scorpion's face. He went flying back through the gates to Quan Chi's palace, and he ended up landing near the entrance to Hell. Ember teleported there, where she stabbed him in the stomach and shoved her foot into his face, knocking him back even farther. Scorpion threw his spear, which Ember reflected back at him, and then he attempted to sneak up on her using a teleport punch. She blocked the attack, twisted Scorpion's hand, and threw him against a pillar. Using her fire breath, she set him alight, then drove a boot into his sternum. Ember heard a few ribs crack, then she felt warmth fly out of her stomach as Scorpion recovered, pulled out his swords and tried to make mincemeat of her. She parried a sword strike with her dagger, and jammed it into Scorpion's foot. He screamed as she karate-chopped his throat, broke his right arm, and then shoulder-charged him and rammed right into his broken ribs. He fell backwards, pulling the dagger out of the ground, which Ember scooped up and sheathed. Scorpion stood up, bloodied, beaten, with several broken bones, and dazed.

Quan Chi then appeared by Ember's side. "Kill him" he commanded her. "He is weak, pathetic. You have proven yourself to be the rightful heir to the Netherrealm, and my most loyal servant. Kill him, and you will become queen, ruling by my side."

"Master… mercy…" Scorpion croaked out of his damaged throat.

"You have failed me Scorpion, and now you leave me no choice" Quan Chi told his dejected servant. To Ember he snarled "FINISH HIM!"

"With pleasure" Ember said, and she approached the defeated Scorpion. Ember thrust her dagger into his stomach, spilling more blood, puncturing intestines and organs. He screamed an un-manly shriek, and it was music to her ears. Summoning all of her magic, she channeled fire through her body, through the dagger, and into Scorpion. Screaming louder, Scorpion was set ablaze, and had turned into a walking inferno. Ember pulled the dagger out, and watched the former servant's clothing, skin, and organs liquefy and melt before her very eyes. His bones and muscles blackened, charred, and the thing that once was Quan Chi's most loyal minion collapsed on the ground.

"You have done well, Ember. You are now my Queen. But I feel that the name has outgrown you" Quan Chi told her. Eyeing the remains of Scorpion, he suggested "Why don't you take the name of your most humiliated victim?"

Scorpion, the first Queen of the Netherrealm, agreed wholeheartedly.

_V_

Raiden knew something was wrong with him. Today during meditations, he received more visions, depicting a future that was too terrible to share with anyone else. He locked away what he had seen into the recesses of his mind, and knew that the timestream needed to be fixed in order to save the world. But first, he had to make sure that Scorpion and Sub-Zero did not kill each other in the tournament that was to begin the next month. Saving the two rivals would be the key to salvation, and the prevention of Armageddon.

In his visions, Raiden had seen a pyramid of fire with dismembered and pulverized corpses on every side. Raiden in his vision was fighting Shao Kahn on top of the pyramid, and lost, allowing Shao Kahn to take over and control Earthrealm. The only message his future self told him was "He must win." There was just one problem: Who was he?

_It could be referring to anyone fighting in the Mortal Kombat _Raiden thought as he meditated, levitating off of the ground. This thoughts turned to Liu Kang, but endless possibilities swirled through his mind faster than churning rapids

_Anyone._

_3_

_The Tournament_

_I_

Sub-Zero stood and watched as the procession of monks streamed into Shang Tsung's courtyard. She felt a twinge of restlessness and impatience as she waited for the tournament to begin. Glancing around her, she noticed Cyrax stifling a yawn, and Sektor fiddling with his gauntlets. Smoke was the only one who looked semi-prepared and focused. Even the Earthrealm delegates were trying not to fall asleep in their spots. The only person over there who seemed focused was Johnny Cage, the actor, and he was busy hitting on Sonya Blade, who turned away from him with disgust.

Elsa kept herself awake by scanning through the crowd and picking out who was who. She created a mental list in her mind:

Johnny Cage, the annoying actor

Sonya Blade, Special Forces

Liu Kang, champion of the Shaolin Monks

Raiden, head of the Earthrealm delegation and God of Thunder

Kitana, Princess of Outworld

Jade, her servant

Baraka, head of Shao Kahn's Takartan Division

Reptile, a lizard with human qualities

Including her and the band of Lin Kuei, Quan Chi and Shang Tsung were the masters of ceremonies. They both glanced at each other with hatred burning bright, and Shang Tsung folded his arms across his chest. He was an old frail-looking man garnered in robes of red outlined in black. Sub-Zero knew that his appearance was deceiving. The monks stopped and sat down on several rows of benches in front of a long strip of stone. Shang Tsung stood in front of his throne, and orated "Welcome, everyone, to the Mortal Kombat tournament. This tournament is an extremely important tournament, as it is the tenth tournament after nine consecutive Earthrealm losses. One more Outworld win and the High Emperor will merge the two realms."

At these words the two crowds of fighters perked up. Cage stopped his advances towards Sonya, and actually focused on the Chinese man on the dais. Shang Tsung continued with his speech.

"The Earthrealm fighters will fight a series of Outworld fighters in a sequence of battles. The remaining Earthrealm battlers shall fight the reigning champion, Goro."

"What's a Goro?" Johnny Cage whispered a little too loudly.

Shang Tsung took no heed to the actor's comments, and finished his speech:

"If an Earthrealm fighter beats Goro, they will face one final challenge: Me.

At this, Johnny Cage snickered and said "If that old geezer's the final challenge, then hand me the heavyweight belt right now."

Unbeknownst to the cocky actor, Shang Tsung had teleported next to Johnny Cage and was looking right over his shoulder. Cage noticed something and turned around, muttering "What?" Shang Tsung only smiled and floated back to his throne.

"Our first contestant is Mr. Cage!" Shang Tsung announced with a grin on his face. Elsa was glad the tournament was finally beginning and she looked forward to watching the actor get his ass handed to him. Johnny Cage stepped forward with a smirk on his face. His bright purple and blue suit was reflected in the moonlight, and his sunglasses concealed his emerald eyes.

"Yeah, that's right! Who's first to get their butt kicked?" Cage mockingly asked the crowd. Nobody from Outworld stepped forward to challenge him. After several beats of silence, Shang Tsung finally declared "Your first challenger is Reptile!"

On top of the roof, Reptile cast off his invisibility power, and jumped down into the courtyard. He was an ugly sight to behold, as if a dinosaur had a baby with a frog and it grew up to look like a demented iguana dressed in battle armor. Elsa had stop herself from facepalming. The actor didn't stand a chance against anybody. A toddler could probably beat him.

But she was wrong. About a minute and a half later, after exchanging several painful-looking blows, Reptile lay on the ground croaking in pain. Cage stood over him, basking in his triumph. Displeasure slowly crept into Shang Tsung's face.

"Yeah right!" Johnny Cage yelled. He was really getting on Sub-Zero's nerves, and after another quick glance around, she noticed everyone else had looks of scorn on their faces, embarrassed by the man's inappropriate behavior. He walked along the rest of fighters, pointing at them and shouting "I'm taking you out!" to each and every one of them. When he finally reached Sonya, he said "And I'm taking you out… to dinner." Sonya only sighed and shook her head in repulsion. Shang Tsung, who for some reason had let this little charade go on for far too long, then announced, "Mr. Cage, your next opponent is Baraka!"

The Takartan servant stepped out of the Outworld group and faced opposite Johnny Cage. He unsheathed his arm blades with a loud _SHING_, and Cage looked upon his opponent in awe. "Whoa, cool makeup" he said as he looked at Baraka. Elsa was certain that he would get his butt kicked this time.

Another minute and a half passed, and once again, she was wrong. Johnny Cage stood over the fallen Baraka, panting. He was babbling about something called Tommy Scissorfists and producers. Shang Tsung interrupted the reverie by calling out "FINISH HIM!"

Johnny turned to the host, and scratched his head. "Finish him?" he asked in a puzzled voice. Shang Tsung cleared up any discrepancies by yelling out "KILL HIM!" The meaning of this sunk into Johnny, and he glanced down at the beaten Baraka. "I'm not gonna kill anyone tonight." Everyone groaned and looked disapprovingly at Johnny Cage. Smoke, standing next to Sub-Zero, sighed. Shang Tsung raised his hands to quiet the crowd, then spoke.

"The tournament will continue in the morning!" he announced. One by one, the monks sitting down filed out of the courtyard through a large golden gate. Baraka arose, dazed, and staggered over to the Outworld group. Johnny Cage stood dumbfounded.

"That's it?" he asked. He walked away towards the gate the monks had left through, but was stopped by Lord Raiden and Liu Kang. From the distance she was at, Elsa could not make out the words being spoken. Judging from the actor's body language, he was rejecting whatever the Thunder God could be telling him. The conversation broke off as Johnny Cage strode around Raiden and exited the courtyard with a flourish. Raiden and Liu Kang followed. Sub-Zero's arm was grabbed by Smoke, and the two Lin Kuei left the courtyard.

_II_

The dormitory where the members of the Outworld group slept were luxurious and decadent, two thing that Sub-Zero hated. Even though her royal background had taught her to live in the lap of extravagance, years of Lin Kuei training had erased the pleasures of lavish living from her mind. Instead of sleeping on the soft silk bed that was provided for her, she created a bed out of ice and was sleeping on it until there came a knock at the door.

She awoke with a start, hands beginning to formulate an ice shard. There was a flash of blue light, and Raiden appeared in the bedroom. Sub-Zero readied herself for any trouble the God of Thunder could have in store. Raiden raised up his hands in innocence.

"I do not come here for a fight. I come only to deliver a message" Raiden said in a calm, suave tone.

Sub-Zero scoffed. "Right. In the middle of the night. I didn't think you could directly challenge anyone unless challenged first" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Raiden continued "I have reason to believe that you will play an important part in the upcoming tournament. You are a key piece in larger machinations as well."

Sub-Zero brushed him off and fired off several questions in his general direction "Why me? Why not Smoke or Cyrax or anyone else in Outworld? Why specifically me?" she asked with irritation creeping into her voice.

Raiden paused, hesitation flickering through his blue eyes, then dropped the bombshell: "Elsa, your sister is still alive."

She did not fully register what the god in the straw hat had said until several seconds after the statement had made its impact. "What? No, that's impossible. She died when Arendelle was destroyed a few years ago. I heard no one survived."

"But your sister did" Raiden revealed. "Thanks to some intervention by the forces of the Netherrealm, the sorcerer Quan Chi and his ward Scorpion kidnapped your sister, then destroyed Arendelle to cover their tracks. During the same you trained under the Lin Kuei, Quan Chi was grooming her to become his "queen". Apparently, in the past week, she killed Hanzo Hasashi and took his place along Quan Chi's side. She is expected to arrive tomorrow and fight in the tournament. I had a vision earlier that showed a future in which both of you kill each other."

Elsa sat down on the edge of her makeshift ice bed, letting all of the Thunder God's revelations sink in. Her sister was alive and well, but now Quan Chi's mistress and Bi Han's mortal enemy. Finally, after several beats of silence and wool-gathering, she stood up and asked Raiden "What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to try and make peace with your sister. I have a feeling Quan Chi repressed her memories of her childhood, but they can resurface with enough willpower to remember. Get her to remember you." Raiden thought about telling Elsa Shao Kahn's bid for domination, but decided that he couldn't just trust her fully… yet. She was still too loyal to the Lin Kuei for him to tell her anything important outside of her sister.

"That should be easy" Elsa responded. "My master's last wish before he died was for me to make peace with Scorpion."

"Then try and do so. For the future. Please" Raiden pleaded. Elsa looked at him and muttered a reply. Raiden turned around and headed for the door. Without turning around, he asked "Is Shang Tsung paying you to kill Earthrealm fighters as well?"

Elsa was taken aback. "No. Who is he paying?" she asked.

"Cyrax and Sektor."

"Then it is wrong of them to take the blood money. This is a competition in which the prizes come at the end of it all, not during the conflict" Elsa stated matter-of-factly.

"I apologize to say this about your clan, Elsa, but the Lin Kuei have had a history of making ruinous decisions, such as the slaughter of Shirai Ryu." He paused, then added "Or the Cyber Initiative."

Elsa froze, her calm slowly turning to rage as anger laced her voice. "I, along with Cyrax, have spoken out against the Grandmaster's plan. It eliminates our free will, turning us into mindless machines. The biggest reason I joined the Lin Kuei was so I could set my spirit free and be myself. I don't want that taken away from me.

Raiden paused, then nodded. "Goodbye, Sub-Zero. Do not mention this to anyone else."

"Goodnight, Lord Raiden" she replied, and with a flash of blue light, Raiden vanished.

_III_

The following morning, Elsa struggled to prevent her eyelids from slamming shut. After pondering over the Thunder God's words last night, she had finally condemned herself to a night filled with haunting dreams and images of her sister, taunting Elsa with a cruel face, always beyond her reach. When she awoke, drenched with sweat, Elsa headed into the courtyard to meet up with the rest of the Lin Kuei representatives. Sub-Zero could not bring herself to look at Cyrax and Sektor eye-to-eye, finally knowing what they had been up to.

It was Smoke who drew her attention. He had a puffy face, split lips, and some of the skin above the eyebrows had been sliced with what looked like a thousand tiny knives. Smoke explained that the Special Forces woman, Sonya, had been caught last night trying to break her CO out of a makeshift cage in Goro's lair. Shang Tsung had summoned Smoke to stop her, and suffered some heavy injuries.

"She was so fast, flying all over the place in an acrobatic blur" Smoke was explaining to a frowning Cyrax and Sektor. "For all of my smoky speed, I couldn't keep up with her. She also managed to exploit every little mistake I made, and magnified it to make it a thousand times worse. I have learned my lesson: Never underestimate an Earthrealm girl."

"What became of her CO?" Elsa asked.

"The Thunder God showed up after the Earthrealm woman beat me. He tried to stop her from taking on Shang Tsung, and was beaten. He blinded the entire room with his blue light. When I looked up from shielding my eyes, I saw that she and her partner were gone" Smoke replied. His stony face could not conceal the look of shame within his gray eyes.

Sektor disapprovingly looked at Smoke. "I thought you were better than this, Smoke. You have disappointed the Lin Kuei. Fortunately, the Cyber Initiative shall amend any weaknesses in our combat forms."

Cyrax and Sub-Zero glanced at each other wearily. This was not the first time that Sektor had ranted on about the advantages of the Cyber Initiative to his fellow band of Lin Kuei. Sektor was all about combat, and only wanted to become stronger, faster, and more powerful, unlike Cyrax and Elsa. The look of shame in Smoke's eyes turned into one of indifference.

"We shall become stronger, faster, more efficient than ever before. And it shall not cost us anything" Sektor finished with a dramatic flourish. Elsa had to control herself from rolling her eyes. Cyrax opened his mouth to argue, but decided not to stoke any fires and shut it. There was a moment of tense silence, then a soft popping noise from somewhere in the distance broke the calm. Elsa was the first person to notice the sound. She broke the silent standoff.

"Did you hear that?" she questioned Smoke. "Sounded like one of Cyrax's bombs going off." Smoke only shrugged his shoulders, and the four Lin Kuei descended back into silence for an hour. Fighters from the rest of the Outworld delegation and the Earthrealm challengers slowly filed into the courtyard. It was looking to be like the night before. Finally, the monks filed through their golden door and sat down on their benches. Shang Tsung appeared on his dais, and Quan Chi stood next to him, a smug grin on his face.

Shang Tsung raised his hands to quiet down the crowd, and within a matter of seconds, everyone fell silent. Elsa noticed that the Special Forces woman, Sonya, did not seem so contempt towards the actor like she had been the night before. Elsa also mentally remarked about the large black man clad in power armor standing next to Sonya. _He must be the CO Smoke was talking about._

Her thoughts were pushed away as Shang Tsung announced in his booming voice: "Today, a new combatant has arrived from the depths of the Netherrealm. Scorpion!" At the name, Elsa's veins ran colder than usual. A burst of flames appeared from the center of the courtyard, and a woman stepped out of them. She was clad in a yellow ninja robe trimmed with black. The red hair which Elsa had always recognized her by was in a ponytail that draped down to her back. Her eyes glowed brighter than a thousand suns with anger, and her mouth was covered with a yellow mask. Strapped to her waist was a short dagger that glinted in the sun. Attached to the hilt of the dagger was a link of chains. She shot her angry looks around to everyone in the courtyard.

Elsa felt a twinge of sadness inside. This is what her sister had become? It seemed no matter how hard she tried, Elsa's powers always seemed to come back and hurt Ana. First the whole incident in the ballroom, and now these people had taken the last sane vestiges of her sister and shattered them into unrepairable fragments, turning her into just another crazy weirdo like Sub-Zero and the rest of the Lin Kuei. She hoped that the Thunder God's plan to break her sister free of Netherrealm brainwashing would actually work. Nauseated and dizzy, she staggered out of the courtyard through the gate, wondering where to head.

_IV_

Scorpion felt the familiar rush of flames consume her, then she stepped out into Shang Tsung's courtyard. Although her master had wanted her to represent the Netherrealm in this tournament, she had one purpose and one purpose only: To kill Sub-Zero. He was the one who had slaughtered her family and forced her into the service of Quan Chi. As she stepped out, she scanned the faces in the crowd for Sub-Zero and his band of evil Lin Kuei. She found them huddled around in a group, and as she approached them, Scorpion noticed that Sub-Zero was not among them. Before she could open her mouth to speak, a young voice cried out "I challenge Scorpion!" from the other side of the courtyard.

Every head swiveled towards the speaker, and a young dark-skinned man in a wide-brimmed hat stormed towards Scorpion. He had a look of determination on his face, and he stood only fifteen paces away from her. She adopted an aggressive stance, and the man in the razor hat yelled "For the Shaolin!" "You will regret your impulsiveness, monk!" replied Scorpion. Shang Tsung then announced from his dais: "Scorpion versus Kung Lao! FIGHT!" They ran at each other, each brandishing their respective weapons. He threw his hat in a straight line at her, the razor edge glinting in the afternoon sun. She rolled underneath it and drove a fiery fist into his stomach. He crumpled and grunted while she followed up with an upwards sword slash that sent blood flying and Kung Lao tumbled backwards. He quickly recovered, and spun around in a blue flash. Scorpion was launched into the air, the Shaolin jumped up to her level, and added an air kick to his assault. She was knocked down into the hard pavement, scratching her face. Scorpion performed a backwards somersault to stand up while Kung Lao charged at her. She teleported behind him and caught him unawares with a fist to the face, then capped off the attack with a flaming flip kick that connected with his chin. Kung Lao flew across the courtyard and smashed into the wall on the other side. He collapsed into a heap on the ground

Kung Lao slowly staggered upwards, blood smeared all over his face. The front part of his hat had crumpled and been bent. He shook off dust from his shoulders, then charged once again at Scorpion. He thrust a karate chop into her face, kicked her in the shin, then took his hat off and drove it into her chest. Blood began pouring from the open gash almost immediately. The hat magically disappeared from her chest and back onto his head. In retaliation, Scorpion took her spear, and shoved it into Kung Lao's chin with force. She then kicked him diagonally into the air attached to the spear. When the chain went taut, Kung Lao crashed back into the Earth. He lay there, clutching his head in pain.

"Scorpion wins!" Shang Tsung yelled. Kung Lao slowly stood up, and hobbled back over towards the Earthrealm fighters. Scorpion could see the Thunder God Raiden and the other Shaolin monk talking to the beat Kung Lao. Raiden did not look happy. Scorpion could not hear him well, but she made out the words "It was foolish of you" before their voices became too low for her to hear. She addressed her own injuries sustained in the fight by using her fiery magic to cauterize the wound Kung Lao's hat had left in her chest. It hissed with such a fury that pleased Scorpion. Relieved, she turned to the dais and spoke directly to Shang Tsung, her voice laced with anger: "By the Queen of the Netherrealm, I command you to challenge Sub-Zero!"

A look of disapproval crossed Shang Tsung's wrinkly face. "I do not trust you yet, Queen of the Netherrealm. I cannot trust you as a fighter that deserves the title of Queen. You will face Nightwolf to prove yourself to me." Quan Chi opened his mouth to argue, but then closed it, realizing that they were only guests of the sorcerer. Shang Tsung turned his head towards the rest of the crowd and declared "Scorpion versus Nightwolf!" At the sound of the announcement, a Native American man dressed in moccasins and a rough jacket stepped out of the Earthrealm crowd and stood directly across from Scorpion in the exact same spot where Kung Lao had stood minutes before. Ceremonial beads and other prayer devices hung from his tattered jacket.

"Your aggression is misplaced" he spoke in a smooth, suave voice.

"What do you know of my past?" she replied, anger beginning to boil within.

"I have been persecuted in my past as well" he told her. "But I found new meaning in serving the spirits. I do not cling to the past" he explained.

"You mistake me for Hanzo Hasashi. He and his precious Shirai Ryu are dead and buried" she said, the anger boiling within becoming harder to restrain. "You dishonor your kind by not seeking retribution for your persecution, however. I will honor the memory of my fallen family" she yelled as flames of rage consumed her.


End file.
